iPhone 6 Buyers Reverse-scam Amazon Sellers

An Amazon US listing for the iPhone 6 beset by one-star reviews from buyers appears to indicate a scam in progress, but it's not the obvious sort of trick. It's the buyers that have latched onto this listing, realising they can blag a refund from Amazon by swapping out the phone for a roughly equivalent in weight lump of gunk when it arrives -- and swearing blindly that it was all the seller's fault.

The trick was uncovered by software engineer Cory Klein, who wondered why on earth people would continue buying iPhones from an Amazon seller who appeared to be sending out the odd lump of clay to every fifth buyer or so to boost his profit margins.

Klein suggests that buyers have suddenly realised it's possible to abuse Amazon's buyer protection scheme to force sellers to issue refunds for items deemed improper, hence a flood of new accounts appearing to buy their expensive new telephones then cry "scam!" and have their money back in return for a nice, free luxury item to, ironically, try to sell on eBay without themselves getting scammed out of their ill-gotten gain. [BGR]